Minneapolis musical legend, Black movement supporter, gender-bending pioneer

“His songs were musical arguments to live free.” -Boots Riley

Minneapolis, MN – Wayne Wittman, age 86, a longtime activist in the labor and peace movements in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, died Feb. 23. Wayne suffered a heart attack while on a bus coming home from a labor meeting where he introduced a resolution that was passed. His wife Joan said, “He died doing what he loved to do.”

It is with great sorrow that we in Freedom Road Socialist Organization learned of the passing of the outstanding revolutionary, Nelson Peery. We extend our deepest condolences to his comrades, family and friends.

Minneapolis, MN – On August 9, hundreds of activists and intellectuals gathered at Northrop mall on the University of Minnesota -Twin Cities campus for a memorial rally and march in honor of Jesús Estrada-Pérez, who passed away earlier that week.

Minneapolis, MN – Sharon Rice Vaughan, a longtime and respected member of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) and the Twin Cities peace and justice movements, died in a car crash in Havana, Cuba on March 24. Her sudden and untimely death leaves a big hole in our community.

Minneapolis, MN – More than 200 people gathered January 30 to celebrate the life of Twin Cities activist Gabriel Johnson-Ortiz, who passed away Jan. 17 at age 34 after a four-and-a-half-year struggle with brain cancer. His passing is a great loss to his family, friends and comrades from a variety of progressive political and cultural movements.

Author’s note: Leslie Feinberg preferred the pronouns ze (vs. she) and hir (vs. her) so I use those in this piece.

Berkeley, CA – I just heard about the passing of Yuri Kochiyama from my father, another Nisei (second generation Japanese American) political activist, who lives in Berkeley about a mile from where Yuri was living. I didn’t know Yuri well, having only met her once when we were both attending the same program in the Asian American community. Nevertheless, she was the single most prominent individual Asian American activist of the 20th century and her life and politics pioneered the Asian American movement born in the late 1960s.

It fills us with great sadness to hear of the all too sudden passing of Mayor Chokwe Lumumba of Jackson, Mississippi. The Freedom Road Socialist Organization sends our heartfelt condolences and solidarity to the family and friends of Chokwe Lumumba, the members of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and to the people of Jackson, Mississippi.

Do I remember when I met Pete Camarata? Yeah, I remember. It was in Pittsburgh in the late 1980s before the national convention of our reform caucus, Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). All the Teamster reformers were there.